Going Through The Motions
by RedRubyStorm
Summary: Victoria, little deaf Victoria, is hit by a car. Electra doesn't know where to turn. Her life through the week, dealing with it all, only with some help from her friends. Or, what happened when all hell broke loose in my life last week.  T for cussing.
1. Sunday

**I am, in all honesty, quite in shock at the moment. If it weren't for you guys, and 'Sillabub' and 'Tumblebrutus' in this, I have no idea where I'd be right now. Just… thank you, all of you.**

**But this is what my life has become since (May 15th****) Sunday evening. **

**(I picture the Jellicles as they were in the movie, as human actions will be needed. Also, this is a world where giant talking cat/humans are not an odd thing.)**

**Also, this originally was a GIANT one-shot, but I broke it up, each day a chapter. So some are short, some are long. Ta-dah.**

**-Electra's P.O.V.**

* * *

><p>It all started on what I thought was a regular Sunday evening.<p>

In my room, in the den I share with my parents. Immersed in music, working on stories on the laptop Mistoffelees had hooked up to the TSE 1 somehow for electricity. I'd inherited this one. Some Jellicles had them, not all did.

The phone we'd also hooked up rang. I figured it must be one of the other Jellicles. Our group had kind of split over a while. Left around my section was myself and my parents, Mistoffelees and his, Tumblebrutus, Pouncival, and their parents, Sillabub and her mother, and Plato, living by himself.

Using one of the new human contraptions, little nine-year old deaf Victoria and her parents were about forty-five minutes away, driving one of the human things. I had a vague idea of how to, but I left that mess primarily to my parents. Etcetera and Jemima lived out there as well.

The others were kind of scattered, not too far out of an hour's radius from where I lived.

My mother hung up. "Electra! Victoria's in the hospital! We have to get there!"

Shock. Inability to process. Moving mechanically.

Out of my room, counting my steps.

Two from my bed to my door, opening it, nine to get down the hall to the next door. I didn't ask about Victoria. Didn't really think to.

Open the next door. Seven steps, three around, seven more stairs. In the kitchen. Looking up at my mother. She's crying. Odd. I can't think of why.

"Come on," she whispers, handing me my favorite sweatshirt, a black one with the word 'Paramore' written all over it in white, blue, and yellow. I shrug it on. "We have to get out there."

I nod, not saying anything. Four steps, in the laundry room. Six to get through there, open the door, and I'm out in the garage. Three steps then into the passenger seat.

My dad's at work. My mom told me he can't come with.

We drive to the hospital in silence. My music is playing from the car -I must of left a CD in it- but it doesn't calm me as it usually does. Paramore's _The Final Riot_ fades to the back of my brain, even though my mom has it turned up pretty loud, neither of us wanting to particularly talk.

I stare out the window, at the passing green trees, brown rocks, a mountain, the combination of the two. Watching them fade into the more city scene, lit up signs, buildings, people wandering about. Their lives aren't affected. They don't know the inspirational little deaf princess I do. Didn't know her life may have been in danger.

Absently, I register something in my sweatshirt pocket making noise. It takes me a while to distinguish the music is coming from a cell phone, not the speakers. They are both Paramore songs, after all. I listen to a few more bars of Decoy, then flip my phone open. A text message. A call would have played Fences.

It's from Sillabub. 'Dude. Did you totally forget practice or something?' Right. Softball practice. Kind of seems inconsequential.

I sigh and respond. 'No. On the way 2 hospital. Cuz is hurt.'

Naturally, Sillabub is the best person I know at hiding things from our coach and various teachers, and even though she should be in the middle of practice right then, she responded. 'That sux. They'll be okay?' Of course, she didn't realize I was talking about Victoria, nor did she have any reason to.

'I dunno. Dunno anything, really.'

It doesn't take her long to text me back again. 'U'll be okay?' See, that's why we're what can only be considered best friends. She can tell with little to no thought what I'm feeling. She knows a family injury might screw me up, which it is.

'Dunno.' I tell her. And then we were there, at the hospital. I've despised them ever since I watched Admetus die in one, doctors looking on. I despise doctors too, of course. It's hard for some people not to.

Twenty-two steps from the car into the hospital. Seven to the desk where my mother speaks with some lady about where we'd find Victoria and her family. I turn my phone off, knowing there's something about them interfering with the equipment. I don't like hospitals, yes, but if someone's depending on a machine to live for them, I don't want to have the fact that I can mess that machine up on my conscience.

Twelve more steps down a hallway. In an elevator.

Pacing. Ten steps to walk around the perimeter of the elevator. My mother and I are the only ones who occupy it. I pace around the thing three complete times before the doors open up and we step out again.

Seven steps and then a turn to the right, and we're in the intensive care unit waiting room, or what I call it, at any rate.

Victoria's mom is there, eyes puffy, she had been crying, but probably ran out of tears. Three steps and we're next to her.

Victoria's father is standing behind his mate, hand on the back of the cold metal chair that is appropriate only for a hospital. His eyes are looking at a wall, determined, but you can see lines of sadness etched on his face anyway.

"What happened?" I ask him quietly, because he seems to be the more stable of the two at the moment.

"She was hit by a car," he says quietly, "we only found her because one of her friends saw her bicycle, twisted and mangled, in a yard. She'd been on her way home from a friend's. It wasn't hard to find her. Just had to follow the crowd of people around the unconscious little girl."

We nod. And then we sit. And wait for news on the nine-year-old princess's life status.

Concussion, screwed up leg and ribs, that's the short version. She was unconscious yet when my mom and I left. She'd lost a lot of blood too, apparently.

I counted my steps again, but the numbers were the same. The only thing that I could call the same.

The drive wasn't any less weird on the way home. I didn't turn my phone back on until I got home.

Sillabub hadn't responded. Maybe the coach did take her phone, I don't know. But then a response came. 'U ok?'

I let the day sink in. Answered truthfully. 'No.'

'Want me to come?'

'The 'rents are home. R yers?'

'Like she gives a damn.' Sillabub's parents -well, her mom, really- don't give a crap what Sillabub does. Her dad's rarely home.

'R U okay?' Sillabub's parents put her through a bunch of crap. I don't know where she'd be if it weren't for her friends.

'Ya. But r u?'

This conversation had me laughing, despite the day's events. 'No.' I texted her back again.

'Open yer window, kid. Be over in a sec.' I didn't question this. It wasn't the first time she'd snuck over and entered my room using my window. Yes, I do live on the second floor, but that cat climbs trees like a squirrel.

She swings in, standing on my desk for a moment before stepping off. Her book bag for Monday is slung over her shoulder. "Think your dad will mind driving me with you tomorrow?" She asks me, grinning.

I smile, but tears come out of my eyes anyway.

Her grin vanishes. "Come here, kid." She pulls me into a hug, and my tears and mascara stain her T-shirt, but she doesn't seem to care.

_I can't pretend, to know how you know that I'm here, know that I'm real.  
><em>_Say what you want, or don't talk at all.  
><em>_Not gonna let you fall._

"You'll be okay, she'll be okay. Doctors aren't horrible people," She tries to soothe me.

"Yes, they are. Think of what they did to Ad."

"Lec, they did all they could for Ad. It just wasn't enough." Her head's resting on my shoulder now, her hand rubbing my back.

She sleeps in my room that night. I'm on the bed, she's on the floor. But her presence meant so much to me, that I wasn't alone anymore.

_Reach for my hand, 'cause it's held out for you.  
><em>_My shoulders are small, but you can cry on them too._


	2. Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday

**I failed with Tuesday. There were two of them. So I'll just use the first Tuesday as Tuesday, and the second as Wednesday. There.**

**...wait. I really effed up. Fixing things now. Sorry if you read the first version when the days were screwed up. I'm rather stupid. **

* * *

><p>My dad didn't question why Sillabub was there the next morning, he just drove us to school, not asking questions. My family can be good that way.<p>

I couldn't get to see Victoria -or at least sit outside the Intensive Care Unit- that night. We had a softball game, and as they're retarded and didn't give our team enough players in the first place, I had to be there. And I'm kind of our team's pitcher, so I guess I had to go.

I wasn't really focused on the game that night. I was there, going through the motions. Didn't give up too many hits. Put the bat on the ball, found little holes and got singles, nothing spectacular. Our coach sensed something was off, so he didn't complain when I missed the sign to steal second. Not really a huge deal.

Sillabub went to her house for about a half hour than night. She showered, grabbed her school stuff, then climbed in my window again. We did our homework in silence, my laptop playing music that filled the spaces where words couldn't. We got in an argument regarding music, which wasn't an unnatural occurrence. Actually, there's one that happens at least once a week like that between the two of us. It usually results in us throwing things at each other, laughing, but there was no laughter from me that night. Just a shadow, a ghost.

* * *

><p>Tuesday. School, going through the motions. Having conversations so pointless that I could take part in them, even in my glazed-over state. I have one class with Sillabub, and it's with the strictest teacher for our grade, so we don't talk much except for in the hallways. She got busted with her phone in first period -something very rare- so she couldn't text me, as it was sitting on her home room teacher's desk.<p>

A trip to the hospital. My dad came with us this time. I climbed into the back seat. Tumblebrutus was there. I didn't question it, didn't really want to. We were friends, he and I, and he knew my family better than even Sillabub. Naturally he'd be the one my parents would ask to go to the hospital with. He held out his hand. I grabbed it, leaned into his shoulder. We slipped into a comfortable silence. Tumble and I don't need to talk, it's not a necessity.

Music was playing again. It was the radio. We commented on it occasionally, stuff like, 'this singer's a whore' and 'who the hell came up with the idea for this song, anyway?'. We don't listen to -don't like- the stuff that's traditionally on the radio.

Twenty-seven steps, this time, to reach the lady behind her desk. But we didn't need directions this time, so we walked right past.

Same elevator, same ten step perimeter. The only way I could keep my mind off the fact I was back in a hospital, with another person who was close to me near possible death, was to count my steps. But I didn't pace this time, instead I held tight to Tumble's hand. If his fingers hurt, he didn't complain.

They still wouldn't let us in to see Victoria, not even her parents, sitting in the cold, cold metal chairs. I liked the coldness. It kept me from thinking of little Victoria in there, fighting a concussion and internal problems for her life.

"You can't have her," I mutter to no one in particular, and that's when Tumble sees how truly anxious and screwed up I am.

"You want to take a walk, go to a book store or something?" He asks me. I nod, looking at my parents.

"Go," my mom says, "I'd rather have you there than in here, pounding a surgeon's face in."

My dad's eyeing up Tumble, probably suspecting a hidden relationship or something. Not that I particularly care. "Take care of her," my father tells him, pressing twenty-five dollars into my hand.

My fingers curl around it, and we walk out of there, Tumble's arm around my shoulder.

"Must you do that?" I ask him quietly, smiling just a little.

"What?" He asks, looking for the desk. I know where I'm going, seventeen steps down that hallway, then out the door.

"Provoke him so much that he'll probably never allow you back inside his household."

He laughs as we walk out into the waning sunlight. "How exactly am I provoking him?"

"With the arm around my shoulder bit," I tell him, actually smiling then. If only because he never took his arm away from my shoulder.

"Ah, right, he's still pissed at the possessive, dickhead last boyfriend. He's afraid I'll do that to you, Lec? I've known you since we were kits, tumbling around in Jenny's preschool together, and he's known me for as long as I've known you."

I shake my head as we enter the store, the perfect scent; new books, some kind of brownie, and a hint of coffee blended into one. Go, café and book store combination! "God knows what goes through a father's mind."

I walk through the shelves, leading Tumble with his hand held in mine, until I find the book I'm currently reading. I pluck it out from the shelf, find a beanbag chair, and plop down into it. Tumble plops down beside me, and then we're both laughing, as this was probably meant for a little kid, judging by the astronaut carpet. Yet, there we were.

I turn to the page I'm at in my copy and begin reading, Tumble goes back and pulls out the same book I have and returns to our little haven. "Dork," I tell him, barely glancing up, "This is the last book in the series. Go find the first." He laughs and goes back to the rows and rows of books, successfully bringing back the first book. "Good boy," I tell him, like he's a Pollicle.

He laughs, and we're both sitting there for a while, just reading on our little beanbag chair. The proximity is close, I'm pretty much leaning on his shoulder, but neither of us really mind. We have been friends since preschool.

"I love you, Lec," He says after a while. This is a phrase often traded between my friends and I, so it doesn't bother me.

"Love you too, Tumble." I say absently, turning the page, completely immersed.

"No, really," he says, actually grabbing my attention, and I turn my gaze to him, which is the most attention he'd be able to receive, given current circumstances. "Will you go out with me?"

I look into his eyes. Brown, showing complete honesty, and so much hope it's threatening to overwhelm me. Vaguely, I wonder how long he's been nursing this crush. But it doesn't matter.

"Yes," I say after a while. Simple, plain, but it meant so much to the both of us.

_You used to brave the world all on your own,Now we won't let you go, go it alone._

_Be who you wanna be, always stand tall._

_Not gonna let you fall._

_Reach for my hand as it's held out for you, My shoulders are strong, but you can cry on them too._

And that's how my parents find us, on a tiny beanbag chair in the children's section, leaning into each other, both smiling, reading our books.

Wednesday. Another school day, another seven and a half hours that bore me to death when I'm listening, but I definitely wasn't. My mind was pondering two things, or three, really. The one that took up the least of my thoughts was softball, as we had another game that night, and I was less freaked, so I could actually focus. The second was Victoria. I hadn't heard of any change in her condition, and I couldn't decide if that was a good or a bad thing. And, even though I'm slightly ashamed to admit it, with Victoria in critical condition, Tumblebrutus was my central thought point.

Yes, we have been friends since kitten hood. I don't know how long he's "loved" me for, nor do I know how long I've liked him, though I only realized I did yesterday.

I couldn't make it to the hospital again, though I never heard any news, so I can only assume it was the same as the other nights.

Softball went fairly well. I was a bit more focused than on Monday, so I managed a triple and stole home when their pitcher threw a bad one and it went passed their catcher.

We won that game, 17-13. Tumblebrutus gave me a big hug afterwards, and pecked the top of my head with a kiss. Much as I hate to admit it, he's at least four inches taller than me. Stupid male genes. Maybe my science teacher's right - that the Y Chromosome is the reason for everything wrong in the world. My science teacher's a girl, incase you can't tell.

My dad gave a disapproving glare that had us both laughing the moment he was out of earshot. Sillabub joined us for ice cream and a game of pool eventually. There was laughter and a french-fry fight, resulting in us getting kicked out by one of the workers -who was only a high school senior, actually- but we laughed about it anyway, and ended up chucking rocks at each other in the parking lot anyway.

Sillabub took me and Tumblebrutus being together all into stride, as she does everything, and she told me later that she'd suspected such a thing was going to happen anyway.

_I never knew you could take me so far._

_I've always wanted the home that you are._

_The ones I need…._

_Reach for my hand as it's held out for you,My shoulders are strong, but you can cry on them too._


	3. Thursday, Friday, & Saturday

Thursday. Went to school, went through the motions yet again.

Sillabub managed to keep her phone for the whole day today. We were texting each other for the majority of our classes.

I'm in most classes with Tumble, however, so again, he was mainly on my thoughts. Paper fights during study hall (beginning with me actually trying to study for a history test that I forgot about, and them him throwing a paper ball at my head), whipping lunch aides off at random during lunch, all that kind of stuff.

Got home, immediate trip to the hospital to see Victoria. I brought my book along, and Sillabub was there going along with her iPod. My dad was driving, my mom in the passenger's seat. Tumblebrutus had a baseball game or something.

Victoria's room had been moved. Thirty-two steps down a hall, a right turn. Fourteen steps down that corridor, another right turn, and we were in Victoria's room. We were actually allowed to see her today. I let Sillabub and my parents go ahead of me.

I wasn't prepared for what I saw. I knew it would be bad, but not like this. Admetus, in the hospital, had just been him, a bunch of machines hooked up to him (that obviously hadn't done enough to save his life), yes, but still, you could easily tell it was Admetus. With Victoria, you could make out the small form under the covers. You could not tell it was Victoria. On TV, when someone's in the ICU, they look neat, clean, still themselves. Vick's hair was tangled, her eyes had bags under them. Or, what you could see of her, anyway. Her head was mostly wrapped up in this big, white bandage. Her face was bruised something terrible. There was a lump under the sheet where her leg would be - I assumed a cast. My one and only thought was: what the hell happened?

I turned and split, sat in the hallway, trembling. A nurse saw me, took me to this room with a bunch of televisions in it. I saw on a red couch, wrapped my arms around my knees, and stared at a wall until Sillabub came and led me back out to the car and we went home.

She stayed the night again.

* * *

><p>Friday. No school. Act 80 Day or something. Whatever. An excuse to sleep in.<p>

I wasn't up until noon. That's why I use my alarm clock and my phone's alarm clock to get me up in the morning - I'd be out of it until, like, fifth period otherwise.

We had to be ready to play a game for four o'clock, because it was an away game.

The four hours I spent beforehand weren't much of anything in particular, playing video games with Sillabub, blasting music. She went home to get her softball stuff around 3:30, then was back at my house in full uniform by quarter of four. She's like a quick-change artist or something, I swear.

We played not even half an inning. The sky opened up out of nowhere and dumped on us. The bases had been loaded, our clean-up hitter up. Sillabub and I put on our helmets and ran for cover - underneath the coaches truck - laughing the whole time. Compared to yesterday, this day was perfect in terms of my mood.

Sillabub and I had a movie marathon afterwards. A scary one. Or, well, it started out as one, anyway. We watched both _30 Days of Night_ movies, then both _Paranormal Activity _movies. Of course, we left surround sound on, not realizing it, and it scared the crap out of us.

After that, we watched _Rent. _Then went to sleep, with slightly more peaceful thoughts.

* * *

><p>Saturday. I slept until noon again. No surprise there. To anyone, really.<p>

We went out to the hospital again. I steeled myself this time, resolving to stay next to Victoria no matter what.

It was just myself and my parents. Sillabub was out at one of her usual haunts, probably scamming someone at pool, and Tumblebrutus was away in a different state until Wednesday.

Lunch. My parents went down to the cafeteria to grab some food or something.

I didn't leave - wasn't hungry. I just sat next to Victoria like I'd been doing for at least a half hour, stroking her hair, her forehead, squeezing her hand. Victoria's parents were out, couldn't come today. A friend was having a party or something.

Victoria's hand, all of a sudden, squeezed mine back.

I looked down at her, carefully, trying not to move the thin hospital mattress or something. If I had, it probably would've caused her a lot of pain.

She blinked awake, and her hand slid out of mine.

I held mine out again, she grinned, then winced, but took it anyway. I carefully, very carefully, hugged her. Victoria was awake. She was going to be okay.

_Reach for my hand, 'cause it's held out for shoulders are small, but you can cry on them too. Everything changes but one thing is true, understand._

_We'll always be more than a fam. -_

**[A/N] This was, FYI, originally written as a HUGE one-shot, but I decided to break it into chapters by the days. That's why some are short.**

**The song incorporated throughout the whole thing is More Than A Band by Lemonade Mouth - a recent Disney Phenomenon that my brother's gotten me to watch.**

**These events, throughout this whole thing, are true. All of them. "Victoria" was hit by a car, "Tumblebrutus" and I are now dating, we all did get kicked out of the ice cream shop, the sky did decide we weren't supposed to play softball that day…. True. **


End file.
